DOGS PASS ON IMPORT DRAFT

By Bert Richardson
Station Nation Staff

As expected, the Saint John Sea Dogs were silent on Canadian Hockey League Import Draft day.

The Port City squad passed on both of their picks. The first was 54th overall and the second was at 114th overall. With such low picks, there was likely a small market in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League to trade either of the selections.

Saint John was one of only two teams to pass on a pick in round one. The other team was our good friends located in Moncton.

Each team in the CHL is permitted to carry two European Import players each season. These players are selected annually at the Import Draft, with the order of selection rotating through each of the three leagues in the CHL using an inverse order of their final regular season standings from the 2009-10 season.

With solid imports Stanislav Galiev and Tomas Jurco already on board for next year, the Sea Dogs had no choice but to skip on their picks. The Wildcats are expected to have Sea Dog killer Marek Hrivik back next season and, who knows, maybe even Kirill Kabanov will show up for a game or two.

The Prince George Cougars selected defenseman Martin Marincin with the first overall pick. The first QMJHL team to pick, the Halifax Mooseheads, took Czech forward Martin Frk third overall.

To view the full list of selections, click HERE.

With that, all expected off-season events are now completed. The Sea Dogs will likely (as they have done in season's past) kick off the 2010-11 campaign on August 1 with their marketing and season ticket launch. Training camp is set to start a few weeks later.